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Cathy Marie Moulton Moulton, circa 1971; Age-progression at age 47 (circa 2002) Vital Statistics at Time of DisappearanceMissing Since: September 24, 1971 from Portland, Maine Classification: Endangered Missing Date Of Birth: June 28, 1955 Age: 16 years old Height and Weight: 5'4, 98 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Moulton's four eyeteeth have been removed and she wore braces on her teeth and thick eyeglasses with heavy dark-colored plastic frames at the time of her disappearance in 1971. Moulton has scars on both of her feet from wart removal. She has a white spot on her left elbow and flat moles are scattered across her back. Clothing/Jewelry Description: A navy blue all-weather coat, a navy blue pant dress and brown leather shoes.

Details of DisappearanceMoulton planned to attend a YWCA dance during the evening hours of September 24, 1971 in her hometown of Portland, Maine. She asked her father to drop her off on Cumberland Avenue that afternoon. Moulton wanted to purchase a pair of pantyhose and toothpaste before preparing for the dance. She stopped by a music store on Forest Avenue later in the day to visit a friend. She told her friend she would walk home and would see her at the dance that evening. Moulton was last seen walking down Forest Avenue to head home. Her residence was about a mile and a half away. She was carrying a brown leather Mexican clutch purse which contained her house key, two tubes of toothpaste, and a very small amount of cash, not even enough for a bus ticket. She never arrived home and has not been seen again. Her parents reported her missing after she was not home by dinnertime.

Some agencies may report that Moulton left her residence in 1971 with her friend Lester Everett (sometimes spelled "Everette"). The accounts claim that Moulton and Everett drove to Mars Hill, Maine in a stolen 1963 blue Cadillac. They reportedly traveled to Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, Canada afterwards. Everett was located alone sometime afterwards. He said he did not know where Moulton was.

In November 1971, two months after Moulton disappeared, a witness claimed to have seen her at a gas station in Presque Isle, Maine, north of Portland. Her father went to Presque Isle to investigate, but was unable to confirm the sighting.

In 1983, a hunter said he came across a skeleton in the woods near Smyrna, Maine, surrounded by female clothing. Some investigators believe the remains were Moulton's. The hunter was unable to retrace his footsteps and lead police back to the site, however, and the bones were never found. In 2004, investigators began to look for them again.

Moulton's case was reopened in the 1980s, but no evidence was uncovered regarding her whereabouts. She was a junior at Deering High School at the time of her disappearance. Investigators do not believe she ran away; she gave no indication that she was unhappy at the time of her disappearance. Her disappearance remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Portland Police Department 207-874-8533 OR Portland Public Safety Department 207-874-8300 Source Information The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children Child Protection Education Of America The Portland Press Herald Child Rescue Canada NewsLibrary Bangor Daily News Around Maine Updated 2 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated January 10, 2005. Charley Project Home

SnippedAn even older active case is that of Cathy Marie Moulton, who vanished as a 16-year-old Deering High School student early on the evening of September 24, 1971.

Unlike Norton, Moulton gave no indication to anyone that she was dissatisfied with her life at the time. Indeed, Moulton is described as having been a soft-spoken, kind young woman who would spend hours talking with elderly neighbors, or comforting a friend hurt in a car accident.

Like Norton, Moulton was initially suspected of being in the Boston area, though more recent efforts have been focused to the north of Portland.

When Moulton disappeared, she had in her possession a new pair of pantyhose—she planned to attend a dance at the YMCA that evening, and the pair she was wearing had a run—two tubes of toothpaste which she picked up for her mother, Claire, her house key, and a small Mexican handbag that didn't even contain enough money for the city bus fare.

She told a friend at the music store that she was going to walk home and would see her at the dance that evening.

That was the last time anyone who knew her saw Cathy Moulton in the flesh.

The Moultons feel they've done everything in their power to find their daughter over the years—at one point, they even enlisted the aid of a local psychic. Hard as it may be, they haven't given up hope. "I guess I build myself up for disappointment," says Claire Moulton, "but I always think that around the holidays and her birthday, every time the phone rings, it might be her or someone who knows her.

"I suppose it seems ridiculous, but we never give up hope that somewhere, somehow, she's still alive."

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

LYMAN AND CLAIRE MOULTON OF Portland, Maine, have been keeping a private vigil for 37 years for the 16-year-old daughter they knew - and her alter ego, a 52-year-old woman they can't imagine - hoping against hope she's still alive. Their ordeal began the afternoon of September 24, 1971, when Cathy Marie Moulton got a ride into town from her father to buy pantyhose for the YWCA dance she planned to attend that night. She was supposed to walk the 2 miles back along busy Forest Avenue but never made it home for dinner. "One of my greatest - greatest, greatest - sadnesses is that I may die ... and never know what happened to Cathy," says her 83-year-old father, a retired auto dealer, his blue eyes turning moist. "And yet I'm helpless to change it."

Former Portland detective William Deetjen, who worked the case in the late 1980s, theorizes that, after shopping in Portland, Cathy accepted a ride in a Cadillac from a boy she liked. Weeks later, there were unconfirmed sightings of the pair and another male in remote, sparsely populated Aroostook County - about 300 miles north of Maine's largest city - but no solid evidence she had been there or had been abducted.

For years, her parents have been tormented by something one of the purported witnesses said: that Cathy, working in the potato fields, kept begging to go home. "I've always held out the hope that, maybe, somehow, she has amnesia as a result of a beating or something," says Claire Moulton, a 78-year-old former nurse, "and she is alive and has a life and doesn't know who she is."

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Moulton planned to attend a YWCA dance the night of Sept. 24, 1971, just before she vanished. Earlier in the day, she asked her father to drop her off on Cumberland Avenue so she could do some shopping. Published reports state she was carrying a brown leather Mexican clutch purse holding her house key, two tubes of toothpaste and a very small amount of cash. Authorities say she may have been with people from Smyrna and that witnesses reported sightings in several northern Maine communities, including Mars Hill and Presque Isle, as well as Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, after she was reported missing. In 1983, a hunter said he came across a skeleton surrounded by female clothing in the woods near Smyrna. Some investigators believe the remains belonged to Moulton. The hunter was unable to retrace his footsteps and lead police back to the site, however, and the bones were not found.http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/109433.html

Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Claire Moulton is one of a handful of parents in Maine waiting for a missing child to come home.

Richard Moreau of Jay, whose daughter Kimberly vanished in 1986, still hangs fresh posters of her in Jay, clinging to hope that closure is possible someday.

Portland residents Claire and Lyman Moulton, holding a photo of their oldest daughter, Cathy Marie Moulton, at the age of 16, wonder “whether we’ll ever know what happened to her before we die,” Claire Moulton said. Cathy was last seen walking along Forest Avenue in Portland in the fall of 1971. Her parents are now in their 80s.

She has been waiting for more than 40 years.

Moulton's daughter Cathy Marie Moulton was 16 years old when she was last seen on Sept. 24, 1971. Today, she would be 56. Every day, Moulton's mother is preoccupied with thoughts of her daughter.

"You never forget," she said. "I mean, every day I pray that somehow, somewhere, we'll find her."

There are six unsolved missing-children cases in Maine, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a nonprofit group, and Maine State Police. Four of the children disappeared in the 1970s, one disappeared in the mid-1980s and Ayla Reynolds of Waterville disappeared seven weeks ago when she was 20 months old.

Police have said they do not believe Ayla Reynolds was abducted, and that her father, Justin DiPietro, and others in the home the night she disappeared have not told investigators all they know about her disappearance.

Divers again searched Messalonskee Stream on Friday, but police said they found no clues. A $30,000 reward has been offered for information in the case.

Parents of three of the other missing children describe an unending ordeal that haunts their thoughts every day. Without closure, it's difficult to live a normal life, they said.

"It's a nightmare," said Moulton. "We've been living with this for a long time now."

Cathy is the oldest of the Moultons' three daughters. She was last seen walking along Forest Avenue in Portland, according to the Charley Project (www.charleyproject.org), an online database for missing-person cases.

In the early days after her daughter's disappearance, Moulton developed a ritual.

"Our house had a sun parlor on the front, and every day I used to go out in the parlor and look up and down the street expecting her to show up," Moulton recalled. "I just couldn't believe she wouldn't be coming home."

The ritual persisted for decades, she said.

"I kept doing it right up until a year ago when we moved. But I had not-as-high hopes in recent years," she said.

Moulton and her husband still live in Portland. They are in their 80s.

"At this point, we're concerned whether we'll ever know what happened to her before we die," she said.

'THE WORST THING IS NOT KNOWING'

Devorah Goldburg, public relations senior manager at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said the parents of missing children struggle with the uncertainty.

"It is very difficult," she said. "Parents tell us repeatedly that the worst thing is not knowing."

Goldburg said the center never gives up hope of finding missing children.

"No case is closed until we either find the child or learn with certainty what happened to the child," she said. "We work very hard to keep hope alive, and to remind communities that the child is still missing."

Carol Ross said her hope wavers.

In 1977, her son, Bernard Ross Jr., was 18 when he drove off in his aunt's pickup truck in Presque Isle. Ross was reportedly despondent when he left. The truck was later found, but Ross is still missing.

Today, he would be 53.

"I go from thinking he's out there somewhere -- maybe in a hospital or carrying on a new life," Carol Ross, 74, said. "Other times, I think he must be gone, because he would have called us."

Ross and her husband, Bernard Ross Sr., 76, live in Portland.

Recently, the Rosses got a glimpse of what their son might look like today after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children developed an age-progressed image. The center combined the parents' and siblings' facial features with their son's high school senior portrait to show what a middle-aged version of Bernard Ross Jr. might look like.

"It's still kind of strange to look at it," the father said.

He added that news of missing children such as Ayla Reynolds stirs up old feelings.

"It brings up some pain, some grief and hope for that child," he said.

TWO YOUNG BOYS LOST

In addition to Ayla Reynolds, there are two unsolved missing-children cases in Maine that involve small children. The two young boys vanished in the 1970s in separate incidents.

On Sept. 1, 1975, Kurt Ronald Newton of Manchester vanished from Natanis Point Campground in Chain of Ponds in western Maine near the Quebec border. He was 4 at the time. Today, he would be 40.

Kurt was last seen riding a Big Wheel tricycle near his parents' campsite, according to the Charley Project.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said efforts to find Kurt were historic in scope.

"One of the largest searches of the decade was mounted up there to try to find him," he said. "All they found was his tricycle."

After the search concluded, Kurt's parents mailed missing-child posters with Kurt's photo to every school district in the United States.

His parents, Ronald and Jill Newton, declined to be interviewed.

Douglas Charles Chapman was last seen playing in a sand pile outside his parents' home in Alfred on June 2, 1971.

He was 3 at the time. Today, he would be 43.

A search dog followed Douglas' scent from the home, "through a field, past an apple orchard onto a farm, and down the driveway to the main road," according to the Charley Project.

The ensuing six-day search was one of the largest ever for a missing person in York County, according to a 1993 story by The Associated Press. It included about 3,000 volunteers, aircraft from the Navy and National Guard, and scuba divers.

Officials even pumped local wells dry to look for the boy, the story reported.

In 1993, the boy's father, Gary Chapman, successfuly pleaded with police to expand the investigation.

He said police had been convinced Douglas had wandered off, died and would eventually be found, but Chapman wanted investigators to consider abduction.

The boy's parents are divorced. His mother, Carole Allen, moved to New York, and his father to Waterboro. Neither could be reached for comment.

Someone has answers, Allen said in 1993.

"It doesn't make sense that a child should disappear and nobody saw anything," she said.

In 2001, Chapman told the Hartford Courant that his son's disappearance was difficult for the community to accept.

"People want to believe that these things don't happen and kids just don't disappear," he said. "Well, kids disappear way too often."

McCausland said police still get tips on both missing boys.

"We, from time to time, have received inquiries from people who either think they themselves could be Douglas or Kurt, or thought they recognized one of them," he said. "None of those leads have panned out."

A FATHER'S LINGERING GRIEF

Richard Moreau's daughter vanished nearly 26 years ago. Every day, he wonders what happened to her.

Kimberly Ann Moreau was last seen in May 1986 in Jay when she climbed into a white Pontiac Trans Am driven by a man she had met earlier that day, according to the Charley Project. She was 17 at the time. Today, she would be 43.

The driver of the car is considered a person of interest in the case, but he was never charged.

Richard Moreau, 69, said he and his wife knew right away that something was wrong when their daughter wasn't home by dinnertime. The next morning, the Moreaus reported their daughter missing, but police didn't get involved for another 48 hours, he said. When they did, police said the girl had probably run away.

Moreau and his wife didn't agree, so they performed their own investigation with the help of two family members. The Moreaus talked to people in the area, took statements and compiled a folder of evidence that they eventually turned over to detectives.

"We could not rely on anyone else to get it done," he said.

Four months later, state police took over the investigation, Moreau said.

"They realized this was something more than just a child that ran away, and they listed her as exploited and endangered, which, as far as I know, is how she remains listed today," he said.

Those initial years were difficult, Moreau said.

Soon after Kimberly disappeared, Moreau and his wife concluded that their daughter was dead. Within a year, Kimberly's grandfather died from what Moreau described as heartbreak. A year later, Kimberly's mother died of cancer.

"I had three years of what I classify as total hell," Moreau said. "Pardon my language, but that's the best way I know how to put it."

A few years later, in 1991, Moreau took matters into his own hands again after he was encouraged by private investigators to spread awareness of his daughter's disappearance.

Moreau began taping missing-child posters onto utility poles throughout the area, he said. Also, as a supervisor in the shipping department of International Paper Co., Moreau would insert missing posters into shipments. Those posters have been sent to cities in Asia, Europe and South America.

"She's basically been around the world," he said of his daughter's image.

Moreau estimates he has distributed more than 50,000 posters, and that number continues to climb.

As recently as last month, Moreau was hanging new posters in Jay, he said. Whenever posters deteriorate because of bad weather, Moreau replaces them with fresh copies.

Moreau said he hopes his daughter's remains will be found so she can be buried in the local cemetery next to her mother, grandmother and grandfather. He said he wants the opportunity to visit his daughter's grave and talk to her. He's imagined countless times what it would be like to have that kind of closure.

"It would be like taking 10 tons off my shoulders," he said. "I'd be able to go to bed at night, lay down and get a full night's sleep without ever waking up.

"I would be able to say, 'Darling, I know you're home, and I love you.'"

Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Ben McCanna can be contacted at 861-9239 or at:

bmccanna@centralmaine.com

Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Search continues for six missing Maine children on National Missing Children’s DayMaine | Saturday, May 26, 2012

PORTLAND, Maine — The parents of 6-year-old Etan Patz — who disappeared 33 years ago Friday after leaving his Manhattan home heading for the school bus — got the news this week that they have been dreading for decades.Their son is believed dead and a 51-year-old man has admitted to strangling the first-grader in 1979 when he himself was a teenager.

Cathy Moulton is seen at left in a 1971 picture. The teen went missing that year and has not been heard from since. At right is an age-progression image showing what she may look like today.

17-year-old Kimberly Moreau was last seen in Jay at about midnight on May 11, 1986 in the company of an individual she met earlier that day. She has not been seen since. Extensive searches have been conducted throughout the region. Foul play is suspected.

3 year old Douglas Chapman was reported missing by his mother at about 10:30AM on June 2, 1971. He was last seen playing by a sand pile 25 yards in front of his residence. His mother reported that she was in the residence talking on the phone and his father was at work.

“The pain of losing a child never dulls,” U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said Friday in Portland as he and other law enforcement officials marked National Missing Children’s Day. “For those thousands of families missing children today, like Etan Patz, whose case lingered unsolved for … years, we don’t give up.”

In 1983 President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 — the day Etan Patz vanished four years earlier — as National Missing Children’s Day, and the following year Congress passed the Missing Children’s Assistance Act, creating the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Toddler Alya Reynolds, who was 20 months old when she was reported missing on Dec. 17 from her father’s Waterville home, is one case that police continue to actively investigate, but she is not the only missing child in Maine.

“In Maine, there are currently six unsolved missing children cases dating back 40 years,” Delahanty said. “They are not all infants or toddlers.”

Chapman was last seen playing by a sandpile about 25 yards from his home in Alfred, while his mother was inside on the phone and his father was at work, according to a Maine State Police website dedicated to missing Mainers.

Moulton had dyed red hair and was last seen in downtown Portland, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s website.

Newton wandered away from his family’s campsite at the Chain of Ponds Public Reserve Land near Coburn Gore on the Quebec border. He was last seen riding his tricycle at the campsite while his mother was out of sight washing muddy shoes.

Moreau was last seen in the company of an individual she met earlier in the day and foul play is suspected, the state police website states.

Two other teenagers who disappeared years ago also remain unaccounted for.

Bonnie Ledford, 19, of Dedham, who went missing in 1980, and Angel Antonio Torres, also 19, of the Saco-Biddeford area who was reported missing by his family on May 24, 1999 are listed on the state police website.

Foul play is suspected in both cases.

When children go missing or are abducted, time is of the essence, said Todd DiFede, the FBI’s senior supervisory agent for Maine.

“Every second, every minute and every hour counts in bringing a child home safely,” the veteran agent said.

To help parents keep vital information at their fingertips, there is a new app for smartphones that records a child’s height, weight, eye color and physical traits, as well as a photo, and can be instantly accessed, if needed.

“With the click of a button, the information is sent in an email,” DiFede said.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also has several tips for parents when they discover their child missing.

The new smartphone app is “a tool all parents and grandparents should be aware of and make use of,” Delahanty said.

Parents should always be aware of where their kids and teens are and should know that criminals who take children come in all shapes and sizes, said Maine State Police Lt. Brian McDonough, director of the Major Crimes Unit.

“Predators are everywhere and they come from all walks of life,” said the lieutenant, who is the liaison to the National Center for Missing Children and Maine’s AMBER Alert coordinator.

The disappearance and 1932 murder of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of the world-famous airplane pilot, drew worldwide attention and led to the Lindbergh Law, which allowed law enforcement to pursue kidnappers across state lines.

When little Etan Patz went missing in 1979, the media frenzy again put a national spotlight on abducted children. He was the first missing child to ever appear on a milk carton, a tool that is now commonplace, and the Missing Children’s Assistance Act led to the creation of the AMBER Alert, an early warning system issued by law enforcement to notify broadcasters and state transportation officials when children are abducted.

“There is no rest for a parent who has lost a child, and there should be no rest for any of us who are in a position to help,” Delahanty said, flanked by DiFede, McDonough, Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike Tenuta, South Portland Police Chief Ed Googins, Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant, victim witness advocate Heather Putnam and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey Neumann.

Delahanty said education for children goes a long way toward helping them protect themselves.

“We ask parents and guardians to take just 25 minutes to teach their children some safety tips that may save their lives someday,” he said, adding that educational tools are available online at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Take 25 campaign website, www.take25.org. “Twenty-five minutes for 25 tips.”

The tips include telling children never to accept rides from anyone unless they have parental permission, always walking with a friend or in a group, and knowing how to contact loved ones at home and work.